OK blog robbery time again, as I've pinched this post from my other blog, which is about another Doctor Who story, The Day of the Daleks, from Jon Pertwee's era, which was broadcast all the way back in 1972.
Day of the Daleks is
definitely of Jon Pertwee's strongest stories in his time as the Doctor,
as it has some very well written scripts and despite the fact there are
clearly only three daleks in the whole story doesn't really detract
from its quality in the other areas of the show. The plot deals with an
attempt being made on the life of a peace delegate Sir Reginald Styles
who is attacked by a guerilla who quickly vanishes before he can kill
him. As a result UNIT get involved (the Brig et al) and the Doctor and
Jo as they try to get to the bottom of who and what was behind the
assassination attempt. The Doctor and Jo soon discover that the daleks
are the masterminds behind the whole lot and the guerillas who went back
through time were trying to stop a future war which erupted as a result
of Styles allegely luring the world leaders to a mansion where he
killed them in an explosion. So the Doctor and Jo get tangled up in the
mess and are transported to the 22nd century on Earth where the daleks
now rule the Earth and are intent on ensuring their version of events
stays the same.
The story definitely has some very good
standout moments especially the scene where the Doctor has it out with
the Earth controller (the excellent Aubrey Woods) and asks "who really
rules this planet of yours??!" and the scene where the Doctor discovers
the truth behind the war and the future with the guerillas. There are
also some fun little moments, my favourite of course being when one of
the guerillas enters Styles house where he attacks the Doctor who uses
his venusian karate to disable him, with wine glass in hand, he takes a
sip of wine after! The Doctor also got one of the best lines of the
story as well when he says to Styles "try and use your intelligence,
man, even if you are a politician!!".
The weaker side
of the story is of course the somewhat poorly directed action scenes
with the Ogrons, who despite their impressive makeup moved way too
slowly to provide any major threat, as anyone could outrun them,
especially in the last battle scene where the ponder slowly toward
Auderly house (the peace conference setting). The pacing of the daleks
movement also is pretty sluggish, but then again they only had three
working daleks back then. The dalek voices at the time were also a bit
of a disappointment as the voice actors spoke their lines too slowly as
it came out even more staccato then usual
"do----you----have-----the-----space---time---co---or--di--nates??"
gives you an idea of that problem. Despite that though the story
definitely has a lot going for it and the plot and quality of scripts
definitely make up for any shortcomings of the story. Although I still
cringe at Katy Manning's faux cry for help in the scene where the Doctor
and Jo create a diversion so they can escape with Jo screaming "aghhh
help me!!" but I like the Doctor's line after Jo smashes the Ogron over
the head with a plastic wine glass, "pity that was rather a good
vintage!".
Coming onto the Special Edition DVD
version of Day of the Daleks, it is essentially the same version except
with a few extra added effects and tidied up vocal fluffs from some of
the actors. But the main part of the new version is of course Nicholas
Briggs re-dubbing of the dalek voices, which is definitely an
improvement on the original actors voices. Nicholas definitely provides
more pace and hysteria to the daleks voices, although perhaps he does
add a little too much sarcasm into their voices, as his voice always
seems to go up on the end of lines such as "you may goooooooo!". It
just sounds a bit out of place in those moments, but overall he does a
fine job on improving one of the story's less impressive aspects.
Another
aspect of the special edition that has been altered slightly is the
scene where the Doctor appears to murder an ogron in cold blood with a
disintegrator gun, this time round they have added in the old "Greedo
shoots first" principal, with the ogron firing first at the Doctor who
in turn shoots the baddie. They also added in the Doctor shooting
another ogron inside Styles house just before he leaves and shoots up
the next one. It does in some way make the Doctor seem a bit more
moralistic in that he is killing the ogrons out of self defence, and I
guess it does make up for what appears to be a very out of character
moment for the Doctor. Although if you look at other stories you see
the Doctor is put in position where he does have to directly kill his
enemies, such as pushing Magnus Greel into the distillation chamber in
the Talons of Weng Chiang, or killing the Cyber Leader in Earthshock
with Adric's golden badge and then with a cybergun (OK a bit of nerdy
referencing there!).
In regards to the DVD's extras it
has also a fine documentary about the story detailing how it was made,
etc, and it also features a documentary on the special edition where we
see that they actually used new actors to potray some of the UNIT
soldiers being killed by the Daleks or Ogrons. We also see Nicholas
Briggs delivering his lines into a mic with fine hysteria, as well as
how they did the special effects for the new explosions, the background
of the future factory, and the video screen effects. Overall the
special edition is actually pretty good and doesn't in anyway detract
from the original story. We also get the second part of the UNIT family
documentary which is really good as the actors from the Pertwee era,
such as Richard Franklin, Katy Manning, Nick Courtney and John Levine
all reminisce on their times on the show, and there is also a rather
poignant moment with John Levine nearly in tears describing everyone's
upset at Roger Delgado's untimely death and departure from the show.
So that's it for my look at Day of the Daleks, which is one of the most solid and entertaining stories of the Pertwee era.
And that's it for now old chap.
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